I am Not 15 and I Don't Live at Home

by Maria

I will be 44 in the next few weeks. My mother is a hypochondriac and about once a month we take a trip to the ER because of a life threatening issue that all tests show negative. She has these falling episodes when no one is around. I feel that she would delight to be sick. She does have some health issues, but she is very non compliant patient.

I have gone with her to the doctor but she does not want me to tell the truth about what she is or not doing. Then she will plan doctor visits so I cannot go. Me or my sister have to leave our jobs to go attend to her cries. Which is lost wages for me. My sister is salaried. But she spends her spare time tending to her mother-in-law who has dementia.

My brother would like to not be bothered. My dad is frustrated too. She no longer cooks any meals, does no housework at all. None of the family want to visit with them because it is never just a visit because she wants you to work the whole time you are there.

She calls for me to go over there for trivial things such as fix the TV because it was on the wrong channel. This last trip to the ER, we spent the night in the ER having 4 bags of magnesium in a IV because the diabetic patient did not eat all day, by morning they had admitted her for observation, where she developed the flu.

So I stayed all night, went to work later that morning, brought her to my home to care for her.

She got mad and made my dad bring her home the next day. Then me and my husband both get the flu, and I wind up out sick for 4 days, with no pay. Then she calls me to come give her a bath and I can not hold my head up.

She has friends that she takes trips with and has never had an episode around them and has a miraculous recovery to go off with them. I'm exhausted.